Collaborative physics research projects in schools (as part of the Orbyts programme)

Orbyts is a transformative initiative aimed at tackling chronic diversity issues and specialist teacher shortages in science education. Orbyts provides research-in-school partnerships to enable students from groups that have historically been excluded from science to lead authentic STFC science research projects. Orbyts is breaking down barriers to STEM education and creating a more inclusive future for science. Orbyts researchers guide groups of 10-20 students through regular sessions during the school year in which students explore complex science research within STFC’s remit in a supportive environment that challenges their knowledge far-beyond school-level physics. Many Orbyts projects require programming skills. However, not all schools are able to offer programming education, so mentors create tailored coding workshops to help students develop this vital skill. At the end of the projects, students from each partner school present their research at a conference hosted at their partner university. This unique opportunity allows students to share their work while also introducing the school students to a university environment in which they might come to study in the future. Example student presentations can be found on the Orbyts website (https://www.orbyts.org/how-does-jupiter-produce-such-powerful-n) Students’ confidence is often cited as a significant barrier to science for students from widening access backgrounds. The long-term engagement of Orbyts provides school students with a sense of agency and ownership of their research while researchers provide relatable role models and humanise science research on an individual level, breaking down stereotypes and misconceptions of who can be a scientist. These two factors increase students’ science capital and confidence in their ability and inspires students to pursue STEM subjects at A-level and beyond. For widening access to science, the partnership model of Orbyts is critical. For schools with a low number of specialist physics teachers (or none at all), involvement in research in schools is often prohibitive due to timetabled commitments and/or insufficient specialist expertise. Orbyts provides additional subject specialists to run projects, supporting overworked teachers and ensuring that transformative opportunities are available to all. This STFC Spark funding will be used to create a Sheffield Hallam Orbyts Hub to deliver 5 new projects in low socio-economic schools following the success of projects run to date. Specifically, the funding will be used to pay PhD student researchers for the pre-project training, the preparation and delivery of sessions in schools and any associated travel costs. Orbyts founding goal is to enhance inclusivity in science. To ensure these inspiring research opportunities go to students from under-served groups, we select partner schools based on 2 criteria: Schools with high numbers of widening participation students e.g. schools with high percentages of pupil premium students (PP) Schools with low numbers of specialist physics teachers. Our own research shows that even for schools with ~60% PP representation across the school, the physics ‘top set’ is unlikely to have more than 1 PP student. To mitigate these systemic biases, partner schools must ensure that each project is at least 50% girls/gender minorities and 50% PP. Consequently, projects include students from across school-defined class sets. In brief, Orbyts addresses chronic diversity and specialist science teacher shortages by providing school students from under-represented groups with relatable science role models and the opportunity to undertake original, cutting-edge STFC scientific research.